November 25, 1932
After years of speculation on future collaboration between the two major Uplantic baseball leagues, the Uplantic Association and the National Professional League made waves on Monday with a blockbuster merger and expansion announcement. To open the Winter Meetings, league commissioners Jim Windsor (UA) and Shannon Mukai (NPL) held a press conference at the LeGrand – All Seasons Hotel in Tiny Sea City, confirming the long-rumored merger, and revealing details including new playoff formats, new teams, and a very interesting new promotion and relegation system.
UUBO, Promotion & Relegation:
The Uplantic United Baseball Organization is a merger between the UA and NPL, and will also organize and oversee several hundred youth leagues across the nation. The UUBO will maintain the two major leagues as separate entities, with the UA considered the premiere league, featuring a higher salary cap and an extra month of Regular Season games. At the end of each season, one team will be promoted from the NPL to the UA, and one team will be demoted from the UA to the NPL, for the following season. This system will be implemented for the 1934 season.
Expansion:
The 1933 season will be played with the same rules and structure as all previous seasons of the UA and NPL. However, at the end of 1933, the top four teams in terms of their cumulative NPL records from 1930-33 will be added to the UA for 1934, to bring the UA’s total to sixteen teams, while the remaining four will stay in the NPL to be joined by new teams.
The Southern League is a smaller independent pro baseball league that has struggled to compete with the two major leagues, and will play its final season in 1933. As part of the UUBO merger, six of the nine teams in the soon-to-be-defunct league will be absorbed by the UUBO and added to the NPL for the 1934 season. In addition, the NPL will add two brand new expansion teams, bringing the league’s total to twelve teams (four remaining NPL teams + six Southern League teams + two expansion teams).
New NPL franchises coming in 1934:
- Tillers Greys (Tiny Sea) (from SL)
- Green Rock Dragons (from SL)
- Lia Puedris Blue Sox (from SL)
- Farport Flames (Tiny Sea) (from SL)
- Kontekia Mystics (from SL)
- Gallstone Ropers (from SL)
- Gandolire (expansion team, nickname and identity forthcoming)
- Riverside (expansion team, nickname and identity forthcoming)
Playoffs and Realignment:
Both leagues are making big changes to their postseasons, to be implemented in 1934.
The NPL will feature a championship series for the first time, dubbed the National Series. The top two teams in the standings will play a best-of-5 series for the National Cup and promotion to the UA for the following season. The top team will play the full series in their home stadium and will be given a 1-game advantage to start the series, meaning that the top team will only need to win two games to take the National Series, while the challenger will have to win three games in order to win the series.
The Windsor Cup Playoffs in the UA will expand from three to six postseason teams. In addition, the league will implement an annual realignment system. After 1933, the East and West divisions will become a thing of the past. Instead, the UA will be divided into four divisions of four teams each. Each year, the UA will reorganize divisions based on the teams’ finishes in the previous season. The winner of each of the four divisions will earn a playoff spot, along with two wildcards. The top two teams according to overall Regular Season record will receive a bye to the second round. The team with the league’s worst record will be relegated to the NPL for the following season.
The first Windsor Cup Playoffs round, the Wildcard Series, will feature division winners numbers three and four hosting the two wildcard teams in best-of-3 series played entirely at the ballparks of the division winners. The second round, the UA SemiFinal Series, will feature the winners of the Wildcard round in best-of-5 series against the two division winners who received byes. The two winners of the SemiFinal Series will then play in the best-of-7 Windsor Cup Finals for the top prize in all of baseball, the Windsor Cup.
Winter Meetings
In addition to these momentous announcements, the Winter Meetings took place this week. Stay tuned for more news on the latest transactions and happenings of the week as the UA and NPL prepare for their final season as independent leagues before the new UUBO merger format officially launches in 1934!
Uplantic Sports Today 
6 thoughts on “Offseason Report: Uplantic Baseball Merger!”